Sunday, 29 November 2015

Before I came into contact with natural yeast bread, this type of bread seems mysterious, complicated and confusing to me, not until I bought the recipe book which introduced me to "No-knead Natural Yeast Breads". The quest for a bottle of good natural yeast was a challenging experience. I failed thrice to cultivating natural yeast using flour and water. Frankly speaking, this method of cultivating natural yeast was horrible in terms of smell. Finally, I decided to use lemon as a medium. I successfully cultivated the yeast, but could not identify the right time to do the transfer to flour and water base starter. That's why I'm not sharing the yeast cultivating process for the time being.

Using autolyse and fold method of kneading is new and interesting to me. I didn't expect the first loaf of bread to have such a good, soft and moist texture. The steps are easy, but you must have the time for the pull and fold sessions in every 15-minute interval for about four to six sessions. In my opinion, this is not a totally no-knead method, it still involves some forms of light kneading, so I would prefer to call it easy-knead instead of no-knead bread :)

15 minutes after the 5th pull & fold session, the dough can be stretched to form a thin membrane.

5. Pull down the side of the dough and tug at the bottom to shape the dough into a smooth ball.

Place the dough back to the mixing bowl, cover with a lid, and let it undergo the 1st proofing for about 45 minutes, or till it doubles in size.

6. Sprinkle flour over the dough as well as the work top. Invert out the dough and deflate it with your palm.

7. Divide the dough into 3 portions, about 238g each.

Roll up the doughs, and shape them into 3 balls. Cover with a lid and let them rest for about 10 minutes.

8. Flatten the dough with a rolling pin,

fold in the two wings,

Roll it out again

flip over the dough, so the smoother face with be facing out when roll up.

9. Place the roll-up dough into a greased 20x10x10 cm Pullman tin. Spray some water over the dough, and place in an oven to undergo 2nd proofing for about 45 minutes, or till the dough almost reaching 4/5 of the Pullman tin height.

10. Close the lid and bake in an preheated oven at 210 degree Celsius for about 40 to 50 minutes. Place the Pullman tin at the lowest rack.

11. The bread is ready when the crust turns golden. Remove the bread from the tin and cool down over a wire rack.

12. Slice the bread after cooling down :)

By keeping the bread in the fridge during the nights , the bread remained soft till the 4th day.

Bread baked with the addition of poolish dough using natural yeast has a nicer aroma, finer and more springy texture, as well as having a more moist crumb. The softness of the bread can last till the 4th day.

This is a sharing of my more successful experience in cultivating natural yeast for baking use. I have failed thrice using just water and flour. My previous cultivation though successfully allowed me to bake a nice loaf of bread, I think I have over extended the cultivating period. Unless you have seen the entire phrase of the cultivation, you could not judge when is the right time to transfer or "harvest" the yeast.

With the detailed documentation, hope it would helps new natural yeast "farmers" like me to have a better picture of the entire process. This is not a guide book, just an experience sharing.

Good luck 👍🏼🍀

Getting started...

Equipment & Ingredients

1 glass bottle with lid, about 600~800ml

200g fresh grapes

200g cool boiled water

50g raw/fine sugar

Directions

1. Rinse the bottle with boiling water to sterilize it. Allow to dry before use.

I kept it in a warm oven.

2. Rinse and drain the grapes. Slice the grapes into halves.

3. Place all the ingredients into the cool sterilized bottle, and cover with a lid.

Avoid over-tightening the lid, just loosely close, so pressure would not build up in the bottle.

4. Swirl the ingredients a few rounds to mix the ingredients.

Open the lid once every day and give the ingredients about 2 to 3 swirlings each day. So oxygen can circulate in the liquid.

5. Label date on the bottle for record purpose. Keep the bottle in a cool place. See you the next day 🌻

Day 2 (1.12.2015)

Temperature: 27 degree Celsius

Feeding: no

Observation: a little bubbles can be seen.

Day 3 (2.12.2015)

Temperature: 27 degree Celsius

Feeding: no

Observation: a lot more bubbles can be seen. A faint alcohol smell can be detected.

After swirling, more bubbles have been released.

Day 4 (3.12.2015)

Temperature: 27 degree Celsius

Feeding: no

Observation: Bubbles have reduced drastically. Time to transfer.

There are more bubbles after swirling. It looks and smell like beer 😄

Poolish Starter

Addition:

100g natural yeast water

100g unbleached bread flour

Directions

1. Filter out the grapes and transfer the yeast water to a glass jug.

2. Pour 100g of yeast water to a cool sterilized bottle.

Pour 100g unbleached bread flour into the bottle.

Stir to mix.

3. Loosely cover with a lid. Mark the level of the poolish starter with a rubber band. Label the date and time for monitoring purpose. See you later.

Storage - yeast water

For the remaining natural yeast water, seal in a sterilized bottle, label with a date, and keep in refrigeration.

Label the natural yeast with a date sticker.

Refrigerate it. The references I have read indicated the yeast water can last about a week or more in refrigeration.

Poolish Pre-ferment

Continue with the poolish starter from above.

Day 1 ( 3.12.2015)

Temperature: 27 degree Celsius

Feeding: no

Observation: the poolish dough raise to about 4 times the original height. The natural yeast is very active.

Beginning

1 hour 20 minutes later, the volume has almost double.

2 hours 20 minutes later, the volume has increased more than double.

The poolish dough almost filled the bottle up to the rim by end of 3-hour fermentation period. The yeast is very active and is ready to join the baking ^^

4 hours later, the poolish dough starts to reduce in volume slightly.

As I would only bake in the next day, so 8 hours after the fermentation started, I kept the poolish dough in the fridge till 1am. I took out the poolish dough before I went to sleep, to let it return to room temperature. So I could activate the natural yeast when I woke up the next day.

Day 2 ( 4.12.2015)

Temperature: 28 degree Celsius

Feeding: 10g water & 10g bread flour

Observation: the poolish dough double after feeding within 2 hours. It is active and suitable for baking.

The poolish dough before feeding.

After the feeding, close the lid, mark the dough height with a rubber band, and label the time.

After 1 hour, the dough raise to about 1/2 the original height.

The dough raised to about double the original height after 2 hours.

110g of the poolish dough was harvested and use in baking of soft white bread.

At this slower than usual fermentation rate, it is best not to use the natural yeast, but give it a few more days of feedings, till the rate returns to normal - double within an hour.

On my second feeding on the third day, the natural yeast has regained its strength and double within an hour

*\(^o^)/*

The natural yeast is ready to work again :)

Topping up with yeast water

While feeding the natural yeast, you can use the yeast water you have stored in the fridge instead of using plain water. This helps to inject the nice flavour of the grape, which gradually diminished after a few feedings by water, back to the yeast.

Before adding the yeast water, swirl the bottle a few rounds. If the yeast water becomes foamy, it is a good sign that the yeast is healthy. If the yeast is lifeless, it's about time to let it go and keep a new batch.

Cover with food wrap and a lid. Mark the new natural yeast height with a rubber band. Wait for the natural yeast to raise to double this height. It only took 1 hour to reach the new height.

It's useful to keep a record of the feeding quantity, date and time in a small post-it-note. So you'll have an idea of the quantity of the content, as well as the "production date".

Keep the new lot of natural yeast in the fridge, if you want to stop baking for more than 2 days.

Otherwise, you can keep it in room temperature, and do the daily feeding.

Renewing Natural Yeast

A bottle of natural yeast which has been fed several rounds may become increasingly sour. This will cause your bread to become sour too. When the sourness of the natural yeast is getting too high, the yeast will become less active despite your regular feeding.

To overcome this, you'll have to discard part of the natural yeast, and keep a small portion to re-cultivate it into a new batch.

For example,

Keep 20g of the old batch of natural yeast and discard the rest.

Then add 10g each of water and bread flour to form a new batch of 40g of natural yeast.

Let the natural yeast to double itself to check the activeness of the new batch.

Keep the natural yeast in room temperature if you're going to bake in the next day to two. Or else, keep it in the fridge.